Chapter 427: First Snow

In the twenty-ninth year of the First Emperor's reign, as the first snow of the season fell, Heifu returned to Yiqu City with six thousand soldiers…

The month before, Li Xin of Longxi Commandery had launched a sudden attack on Helan with a thousand light cavalry. When the four thousand Xiongnu roaming near the Huamachi salt lakes heard that their rear was threatened, they could no longer hold their ground and immediately abandoned the Divine Spring Outpost and Little Salt Lake, retreating north.

Seeing the Xiongnu flee far away, Heifu did not pursue rashly. The weather grew colder by the day. Although he had arranged for the Wushi Clan caravans to transport large quantities of grain, stockpiling it within the city, and had also squeezed the Lord of Xuyan into slaughtering two thousand sheep—half of which the Qin army ate, the other half salted directly with Huamachi salt, enough to last the winter—

the supplies needed for over ten thousand men were simply too great, and the soldiers were homesick. Heifu could not keep them stationed beyond the frontier for long. Thus, in the first ten days of the eleventh month, apart from leaving the Yiqu White Wolf a thousand cavalry and a thousand foot soldiers to garrison the area, the rest of the troops withdrew with him back to Beidi.

Traveling south with them was the Lord of Xuyan.

As soon as he reached the city gate, Heifu received a warm welcome. The Commandery Assistant, Yin Tong, had come specially to greet his triumphant return.

After Heifu drank the heated wine offered by the city elders, the short and stout Yin Tong sighed with emotion:

"I have served as Commandery Assistant in Beidi for several years. I have heard of the barbarian raiders harassing the border passes and plundering merchants, but our officers and men could only drive them away, never pursuing them deep into their territory. Yet ever since the Commandery Commandant took office last year, he has managed the Rong cavalry within, recruited sons of good families, and dispatched merchant spies deep into Xiongnu territory to observe their true strength and weaknesses."

"Today, the Commandery Commandant marched beyond the frontier with eight thousand Tiger Guard troops. Foot soldiers and cavalry filled the roads, banners and pennants spread like clouds, armor and weapons gleamed under the sun, shaking the land with might and manifesting divine power, moving like the wind and flashing like lightning. In barely ten days, news of victory arrived. You smashed the Xiongnu as easily as breaking dry twigs and rotten wood, took over a thousand heads, seized spoils beyond counting, awed the lands beyond the frontier, and expanded our borders by five hundred li! Truly, this is a feat unmatched since Beidi destroyed Yiqu!"

Heifu cupped his hands in salute. "That I could campaign far beyond the frontier owes much to the Commandery Governor and Commandery Assistant managing affairs at home, ensuring an unbroken supply of carts, horses, grain, and fodder."

"Not at all. The Commandery Governor is like the chancellor, the Commandery Commandant like the general. When chancellor and general unite heart and strength, a minor official like myself merely carries out orders."

Yin Tong's words were overflowing with lavish praise, bordering on flattery. Heifu found it a little strange—he had no deep friendship with this Commandery Assistant. Why was he so much more enthusiastic today than usual?

The two men exchanged courtesies and entered the city. The Commandery Governor, Zhao Hai, was too old to endure the cold, but he still waited outside the Governor's mansion gate. Heifu approached and bowed with clasped hands, but Zhao Hai caught his arm. The old man's white beard quivered as he smiled:

"Wherever the Commandery Commandant's banners point, the barbarian caitiffs flee in flight. Truly you have bolstered the prestige of our Great Qin. If this old body were twenty years younger, I would ride beyond the frontier with the Commandery Commandant to slay the foe!"

Heifu hurriedly replied, "The old Governor praises me too highly. You, sir, are old but vigorous as ever. If you had gone beyond the frontier, there would have been no enemies left for us to kill."

Zhao Hai looked upon Heifu with great favor. Before Heifu arrived, he had assumed that a new favorite of the Emperor, elevated to high rank at only twenty-six or twenty-seven, would be difficult to get along with—an old minister of the former king, already past fifty.

But to his surprise, Heifu possessed a steadiness far beyond his years. He never presumed upon his place in the Emperor's heart to slight the proper courtesies. In daily affairs, he concerned himself only with military matters and absolutely never meddled in the civil administration under the Governor's jurisdiction.

Moreover, Heifu's wife was clever and charming, frequently visiting the Governor's mansion to keep the Governor's wife company, bringing southern specialties and unique pastries from her household kitchen. The month before, she had even sent craftsmen to build a heated-brick-bed room for the Governor's residence. When Zhao Hai returned home, his old wife had scolded him, saying that in all her years following him to Beidi, this was the first winter she had ever felt so warm…

Over the course of a year, Ye Zijin had nearly reached the point of calling the Governor's wife her adoptive mother. A couple so sensible and tactful naturally made it impossible for anyone to dislike them. What's more, the military achievements Heifu had won beyond the frontier would bring a steady stream of benefits to Beidi Commandery.

After welcoming Heifu into the commandery office, Zhao Hai explained his plans to him.

"For the newly surrendered Xuyan Rong and the Huamachi territory, I intend to establish them as a march, appointing the Lord of Xuyan as Magistrate of Xuyan County, with a County Commandant and a County Assistant as well."

Truth be told, it was a bitter situation. Although Beidi Commandery was vast in territory, its population was sparse, and most of its inhabitants were Rong and Di tribespeople from whom it was difficult to collect taxes and levies. It was a notoriously poor commandery west of the Passes. Its most important fiscal revenue came from the Wushi Luo's foreign trade, but the lion's share went to the Privy Treasury, leaving the commandery with only a pitiful amount of commercial tax. The cattle, sheep, and horses sold to the interior each year were barely enough to trade for the military grain of the garrison troops.

Now, thanks to Heifu, Beidi Commandery had gained two major sources of revenue…

The first was the burgeoning wool textile industry. Since Heifu's inspection tour the previous year, when he had persuaded the Wushi Luo, the Wushi clan had begun purchasing long-wool Qiang sheep from the Qiang territories, raising over two thousand head in Wushi County, with another thousand raised here in Yiqu City.

Absorbing Qiang techniques and after two years of experimentation, the Eastern and Western Weaving Chambers of the Privy Treasury had developed relatively mature wool-spinning and weaving processes. Though the garments produced were still bulky and shapeless, the odor was considerably reduced.

Now the Emperor wished to break the Xiongnu, and next year might mobilize three hundred thousand man-deployments! A vast quantity of woolen clothing would be needed. Even after the war ended, the soldiers ordered to garrison the northern lands would need at least one garment for every two men. Thus, this item had become a military necessity, with supply unable to meet demand…

The Commandery Assistant, Yin Tong, added from the side, "The central plains of Qi and Lu have mulberry and hemp, producing silk gauze and plain silk for profit."

"Beidi is bitterly cold, with few mulberry silkworms. But relying on wool spinning, we too can clothe the northern frontier!"

Zhao Hai nodded. He too hoped that the wool textile industry could become a major economic pillar of Beidi.

The second was the newly seized Huamachi salt lakes. For decades, Huamachi had been the primary source of salt for Beidi. Now that Xuyan had submitted, Huamachi naturally fell under the jurisdiction of Beidi Commandery. Zhao Hai decided to immediately establish a salt office at Huamachi, having the local Rong people and garrison troops extract salt…

Heifu offered Zhao Hai another suggestion: "I left two thousand men at Huamachi Fort. When spring arrives next year, a great army will head north again, and oxen, horses, and carts will travel back and forth in an endless stream."

"In the past, when the frontier had need, carts and horses from the interior carried grain out and brought the wounded back, but most of the transport wagons returned completely empty—a terrible waste. From now on, let the wagons heading to Huamachi carry grain on the way out and transport salt on the way back. That way, we can save on transport costs!"

"An excellent strategy." Zhao Hai nodded. In his eyes, what those cartload after cartload would bring back was not salt, but the heavy weight of banliang coins!

In truth, Heifu had another plan in mind for the Huamachi salt. Once the war stopped, Beidi Commandery's official salt monopoly could be loosened slightly. Huamachi would be mined by the government using convict laborers, but merchants could be allowed to sell it, with retail rights handed entirely to them. The government would control only the wholesale link. If salt merchants wanted salt, they would need to transport grain to the border passes and then exchange it with the Commandery Governor for "salt tickets," which they would then use to transport salt back to the interior…

This might solve the problems of grain shortages at the border and high transport costs, while also injecting a bit more vitality into the market.

Of course, for now, it was just a thought. This involved altering laws and ordinances, tinkering with state policy—the Legalists would certainly oppose it.

The three frontier officials discussed the matter of establishing a county and a march at Huamachi for a while. Seeing that it was growing dark outside, Zhao Hai finally said:

"This old man is muddle-headed. Once I start talking about state affairs, I lose track of the hour. The Commandery Commandant has just returned from a distant campaign and has not yet gone home to see his family. Go, quickly! Tomorrow, outside the Pacify-the-Frontier Shrine, I shall host a banquet for the Commandery Commandant and all the officers and men who have pacified the barbarian dust beyond our northern borders, to wash away the dust of the journey!"

The Beidi Commandery Pacify-the-Frontier Shrine was built just north of Yiqu City, next to the "Home of Respect for the Aged" that Heifu had previously had the sons of good families construct—now renamed the "Home of Honor for Soldiers." Further north lay the suburban "Cemetery of the Loyal," where those nameless warriors whose bodies were too mangled on the battlefield to identify were buried.

These three sites had all been established under Heifu's direction after he arrived in Beidi, and they had become the local "patriotic education bases." On the first and fifteenth of every month, the law officers of the local academy would bring their disciples to sweep the graves and pay respects. The commandery troops and garrison soldiers were also required to carry water for the widowed, orphaned, disabled, and elderly veterans in the Home of Honor for Soldiers…

Heifu's heart, too, yearned for his wife, now eight months pregnant at home. He took his leave and departed. By now, a vast, white expanse of snowflakes was drifting down outside. His war chariot, to show that he shared the hardships of his soldiers, had no canopy.

At that moment, the Commandery Assistant Yin Tong insisted on seeing Heifu off for part of the journey, inviting him into his own spacious and warm carriage.

Heifu could not refuse and boarded the carriage. The two men chatted idly about this and that. Sensing that Yin Tong's behavior today was unusual, Heifu had been waiting for him to speak his mind.

As the carriage slowly rolled out of the commandery office, Yin Tong suddenly sighed: "Beidi is so cold, one's breath turns to frost. The Commandery Commandant once campaigned far away in Yuzhang, south of the Yangtze. What is winter like there, I wonder?"

Heifu replied, "Even in the depths of winter, Yuzhang remains green across all its mountains. The waters are warm, ducks swim about. Along the upper reaches of the Gan River, the local Yue people don't even have the words 'ice' or 'snow' in their speech."

"That is good, then. That is good."

Yin Tong smiled. "My wife fears bitter cold the most and has long wished to leave Beidi. If we go to Yuzhang, I imagine she will be willing."

A year ago, Heifu had heard from his wife that Yin Tong's wife had been boasting that her husband would soon be transferred to the interior for an official post. But no movement had been seen for a long time. It seemed the matter had finally been settled.

However, in the eyes of the world, Yuzhang was probably even more wild and barbaric than Beidi. Yin Tong's wife was very picky; once there, she would probably complain about the heat instead.

With this, the reason for Yin Tong's desperate efforts to curry favor with him became clear.

But Heifu still deliberately put on a look of surprise: "Oh? Could it be that the Commandery Assistant is being promoted…"

Yin Tong smiled. "Indeed. It is this humble official's good fortune. Last month, while the Commandery Commandant was still campaigning beyond the frontier, His Majesty issued an edict. Jiujiang Commandery stretches too far from south to north, making travel and administration inconvenient. From the first month of the year onward, with the Great River as the boundary, the lands south of the river shall form the new Yuzhang Commandery! The Chancellor and the Imperial Secretary selected and recommended various senior officials, and I have been ordered to transfer south to Yuzhang, to serve as Acting Commandery Commandant!"

(End of chapter)